still going on. and how will it affect the election and how will it affect transportation? i mean, this is going to be -- already has been a historic storm. but our coverage will continue now. >> all will ten now. >> i'm fredericka whitfield. "early start" begins right now. good morning. welcome, everybody, you're watching a special edition of "early start." i'm soledad o'brien and we are, of course, covering the remains of super storm sandy. i'm in new york city, lower manhattan this morning. also lots to bring up to speed with across this city. there's a major fire that is burning. dozens of homes have been destroyed by this raging fire and there are two dozen more that are still burning. update you on what's happening there. also, in lower manhattan where i am today, flooded by historic

storm surge, a power transformer not very far from here has exploded. it plunged this neighborhood into darkness, forced the evacuation as well, the partial evacuation of one of new york's largest hospitals. transportation here in the city has been paralyzed. the subway system could be shut down for days. from the carolinas to new england and beyond, cnn is covering the aftermath of the storm here in new york and where this super storm is headed, like no other network can. it is tuesday, october 30th and special coverage of super storm sandy begins right now. morning. welcome, everybody. you're watching our special coverage. we want to welcome our international viewers. they've been calling this as a storm for the ages that has aek iffed people from north carolina to new england and as we speak, it is pounding pennsylvania. this storm is not over yet. here's how it looks in new york

city where i am, new york city very hard hit. a transformer just up this direction on 14th street blew out and in fact, it was -- it took -- where i am. it's very dark around us. we're struggling to hold on to our lights here. the wind has picked up a little bit. it's plunged this neighborhood into darkness. been a big problem here obviously. the winds as well. they're significantly less than what they were late last night. it was a big problem. we saw a crane, a crane in fact that we had within standing in front of yesterday afternoon. that crane did topple, crashed down. also flooded failed generators, forcing nyu to evacuate some of its patients. month are than 200 out thereof had to i taken out of there, babies, newly born in intensive care had to be evacuated as well. further along the new jersey

shore, towns like ocean city are under water there. so far we know there are 13 deaths being blamed on sandy across the northeast, more than 6 million people are without power. you'll remember they were predicting it might be as high as 10 million people by the time the storm is over and the worst is not over by any means. 50 homes are now destroyed by a fire in queens, in rockaway queens. we know that two dozen more of hose homes are now actively burning. cnn is covering the aftermath of this epic superstorm like no other network. mike galanos is live for us in atlantic city, new jersey. deb feyerick is on the south shore of long island and lyndon hurst. john berman is in lower manhattan. brian todd is covering rehoboth beach which is in delaware and sandra endo is still in maryland. we'll bring you updates from philadelphia mayor michael

nutter, maryland governor martin o'malley, all of them will check in with us as well this morning. let's tell you where we are, lower manhattan, this is houston street. if you were to go down this way, you'd hit the fdr. if you were watching last night, the fdr drive flooded, very, very unusual. what we can see behind me, behind this downed branch, further back, is more flooding as we head down toward the fdr. much of the flooding in those evacuation zones. these apartment buildings behind me had been evacuated. evacuation zone. of course, flooding a big problem. the good news here it's actually receded a fair amount. the flooding where i was standing the water was coming up to here. it's back maybe 50 yards. so that's some good news. it's happening slowly and we're expecting as the day progresses that the water will go out and recede. up this way is that transformer explosion. people reported seeing green sparks and blue sparks yesterday

evening, trying to figure out what it was. in fact, many messages on twitter about that. it tornadoed out that that transformer was exploding. so they shut down the power. that's why this area has plunged into darkness. if you were to go up another 30 blocks or so, the power is on for much of the city. as we drove around this morning, we noticed there's not too much debris from the bulk of the city. certainly the parts in the middle, lower manhattan. there are downed trees, signs that have flown down, awnings have been knocked down as well. flooding is a big problem here. i want to get you to atlantic city. mike galanos is there for us. we were watching atlantic city very closely yesterday afternoon into the evening where it was just devastating. tell me how it is this morning. >> reporter: it's a lot different. as the driving rain hits. as i was listening to you, the wind has picked up and it's a bitter cold wind as well. behind me, soledad, i was standing in just a few short

hours ago, behind me was basically a raging river. this is a city street in atlantic city and water was above my knee. if i would have tend to walk, basically the ocean was behind me. i'm not sure if you can see the red valley sign. if you continue, you're heading toward the ocean. the water just got deeper and deeper and deeper. the mayor of atlantic city was telling people, this was before it hit in full, we haven stading water in many places, 2 and 3 feet deep, fearing the water was going to be 5 and 6 feet deep. he told people at some point and has taken some criticism for that, if you haven't made it to a shelter yet, hunker down now. there were 500 or 600 people at one county shelter. interesting back and forth on that front. bottom line, you wanted to get out of here. it was brutal yesterday as it was in new york city. it was surreal to be standing half a block back and it was just a raging river, the winds were swirling, the water was

swirling and kicking up and every emergency vehicle that drove by would kick up a wave that would rush my water to my waist. it was quite a scene in atlantic city and still is. the rain is still pounding. >> it looks like massive damage there. walk me through overall the assessment, financially, looking at the pictures you've been showing us, it's going to be massive damage but how about loss of life and other things? >> reporter: we have not heard, again, of loss of life right here in atlantic city proper. they did a pretty good job of trying to get everybody out of here. i had a chance to talk to some people. a couple elderly couples that i ran into, i was coming in, they were coming out. the wife had to convince the husband, let's get out of here. they're happy they did. i know they ended up in a hotel. that's what most people did. i ran into a family of ten that all met in a hotel just outside of atlantic city. that was the way to go.

if you didn't, there was no place to go. the power was out. in front of me is the atlantic city convention center, to the left is a large hotel. think of that, i'm somewhat sheltered and the wind is still blasting me. it was ten times worse yesterday as this storm hit in full, soledad. >> these pictures look amazing. mike galanos this morning. thank you, mike. appreciate it. let's get right to long island, lindenhurst. those pictures, that flooding was ridiculous yesterday. walk us through what you're seeing now. >> reporter: soledad, same street, a little different layer of flooding. you can see behind me here, some of the water and you can't make it out. this entire street is still flooded. that water expected to push up as it does. the big problem here on long island, you have a lot of communities that have been cut off. soledad, you mentioned those homes in the rockaways by the

way. i want to bring you up to date on something. got off the phone a couple moments ago with an official. he's telling us one of the reasons the fires are burning as they are, there's no water pressure. right here we can smell several fires that took place here overnight as well. you have a lot of power lines that are down, incredibly dangerous, streets are flooding, areas that are completely cut off. massive beach erosion. we were talking to somebody last night who basically said some of the beaches have simply disappeared because the ocean met the bay and everything sort of washed away. the official that i smoke to said what they're really waiting for is first light. nobody is going to know how bad the devastation is, nobody will know where the damage is and what needs to be fixed until they can get eyes on the ground and see exactly what is happening. we have police cars stationed all around here. they're making sure people don't drive down the streets. again, just walking a little bit around this area. one of the things is, we are

being told to be extremely cautious. you don't know how deep it is. you don't know if there are potholes or electrical wires. that's one of the greatest problems. we have been told that senior centers were evacuated. evacuation centers full no as people keep an eye on this storm. a lot of folks, soledad, they have no idea what it is they'll be going back to. soledad? >> oh, gosh, it looks just terrible. deb feyerick for us this morning. certainly appreciate the update. i want to go inside to zoraida sambolin. she's been monitoring what's been happening with two big stories. one is that crane collapse. we were talking about that crane and how worrisome it was to see this massive crane on a 90-story building. >> i don't you in particular, you were standing out there, worried about the heavy winds and that's precisely what happened. the powerful wons from super storm sandy causing partial collapse of a construction crane

that is dangling, high above in midtown manhattan. on the left is what the crane looked like before the collapse. on the right what it looks like now. it dangles dangerously from a high-rise building. the fear, of course, it could plunge to the ground at any time. last night piers morgan talked to a crane expert about the potential danger there. >> there are several different scenarios. if you see the boom hanging down, let's say the house swings around and the boom gets into the arms that are holding the crane up, that come out of the building, if it hits that, there's a possibility they could be -- they can break, then the crane's coming down. >> so these are live pictures that you're looking at right now. and there's still a lot of concern about this. they're looking at the situation, trying to assess it, to try and figure out what they

can do about it. this is what i can tell you about that crane. it's 158 feet. it includes a 108-foot boom and 58-foot jib at the tip. they were concerned about that boom. that either broke during those high winds. it had been inspected, though, on friday and deemed safe. but, of course, as you can see, it's not. police and fire crews evacuated people in the area, including guests at the parker meridian hotel. police say stay away from the area. because they have no idea what could potentially happen there. they are looking into it very carefully today to see if there is a way to secure that. here's another big story. a sudden rumble, then a cloud of debris. the facade of a manhattan apartment building is ripped off. this all happening as sandy's intense winds rip right through

that area. and unfortunately one firefighter did have some minor injuries there. we'll continue to follow these developing stories. we'll head out to john berman. he is in battery park. good morning, john. >> reporter: hi, zoraida. can you hear me, zoraida? this place where i'm standing right now in battery park, the part where i'm standing right now overnight at about 9:00 last night this was part of new york harbor. an unprecedented storm surge, nearly 14 feet. 4 feet higher than they've ever seen before. the record was 1960 at 10 feet. believe it or not, out in new york harbor, which is out that way, they measured waves 32 feet high, 6 feet higher than ever recorded there. i just want to show you what the water did. it swept in through here. this doesn't look like much. the plants were standing high here yesterday. they were flattened by water which swept them -- the water

swept back out that way overnight. as i was coming down here, i should also tell you, i've never seen manhattan like this before. the power completely out from about the 20s down to here on the west side. very, very eerie. i heard soledad say she didn't see much debris. on the west side highway we saw construction-like pieces of wood down, signs, trash cans. we had to weave our way through on the west side highway. i've never seen it like this before in manhattan. a very, very eerie site. soledad? >> all right, john berman down in lower manhattan. i'm on the opposite side of the city from where you are this morning. thanks for that update. i want to go to jennifer delgado. there is a sense for people here in new york, jennifer, that it's done but really the storm is not done. >> we're not done. we're still talking about a blizzard setting up through

parts of the appalachian mountains. we're talking wind gusts still up to about 50 miles per hour. you can see the rain still spreading into new york, new jersey, we're also looking at the rain all the way up towards areas, including new england. but right now, the heaviest rainfall coming through for areas like baltimore, washington, d.c. here is the center of the circulation of what's left of sandy. and this is where we're going to see it moving over towards the west. but the problem is on the backside of that we're talking about some very heavy snowfall. now, the big story, of course, has been the storm surge. want to talk about some of the records that have been broken. for battery park we had a high of 13.88 feet. and then for sandy hook, we're talking 13.31. all types of records were broken. that's why we're seeing the flooding coming out of these areas. it was way too much with the wall of water coming through. right now, the winds are very gusty out there.

for new york, winds roughly around 25, 26. we point this out to you because of that hanging skyscraper. i'm sure a lot of people are very concerned about that. in addition to all the flooding and the rain and, of course, soledad it will be very cold when you add in that wind. it's going to be miserable for people who are without power. >> oh, my goodness. you're absolutely right about that. it's cold. >> yes. >> if you don't have power, it's brutal. we're in pretty good layers. if you're in your house for days without the power coming back on, that's brutal and that crane as well. you're absolutely right. our hotel was evacuated yesterday because there were concerns about that craine. we were moved out of our hotel. jennifer delgado in atlanta, thank you very much. still ahead, we'll update you what's happening here in terms of transportation. there's been major flooding here in the city. which means the subways could remain shut down, the buses, the trains as well, for days.

we'll update you on that. straight ahead, you're watching a special edition of "early start" as we update you on super storm sandy. back after this break. stay with us. @p@p

welcome back to our special live coverage of superstorm sandy which brought new york city to a virtual standstill, crippling transportation. sandy forcing parts of the fdr to close in both directions. you can see why. intense flooding making it impassable and dangerous. long island railroad crews are fighting floodwater with water. look at this time lapsed video showing how penn station prepared for sandy. woshers pulled 300 train cars

off the tracks sunday and fill a balloon-like dam with water to trap the storm surge and pump it back out. check out this picture of train station flooded tweeted by the port authority of new york and new jersey. it shows floodwater gush into a commuter train underground station through an elevator shaft in hoboken, new jersey. it's unclear when the trains will resume service. wow. speaking of rushing floodwaters, this is what it was like inside a vent building inside the holland tunnel yesterday. the tunnel was closed yesterday afternoon as the threat from sandy loomed. soledad? >> all right, christine, thanks very much. flooding obviously a big problems so you've been pointing out here where we are in lower manhattan. i'm not far, christine, from that flooded fdr drive. the water has been receding a little bit although the rain has picked up. that's some good news. the water was where i was standing there. it's gone back probably 50, 75

feet. that's been good news. other big problem is the wind. an we know that in rockaway, queens, there's a massive fire burn, some two dozen homes are actively on fire. big problem for the fire department, no water pressure. they can't put out that fire. also the wind causing downed power lines which is what caused that fire in the first place. we'll update you on what happened there. that's straight ahead on the other side of the break. we're back in just a moment. upside down. >> hi. >> hi. you know, i can save you 15% today if you open up a charge card account with us. >> you just read my mind. >> announcer: just one little piece of information and they can open bogus accounts, stealing your credit, your money and ruining your reputation. that's why you need lifelock to relentlessly protect what matters most... [beeping...] helping stop crooks before your identity is attacked. and now you can have the most comprehensive identity theft protection available today...

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sandy. we want to take you now to delaware, rehoboth beach in delaware. it's where brian todd is reporting for us this morning. how does it look where you are? >> reporter: well, fingers are crossed here, soledad, because standing on the board walk. i'll tell you what they were concerned about at the height of the storm yesterday and last night. this kind of wash from the beach, the sand with the dunes possibly getting breached. they did get breached for a short period. not too bad, though, the damage. because the brunt of the storm hit about 45 miles north of here. they thought it could come here ten looked for a while like it was going to come right here. the storm surgeon the shore over here was very severe. the waves were very high. the dunes were getting breached. the water was coming up very close to the board walk here and some of the sand did wash on. but for the most part, the board walk has held the beaches which they actually built out about 300 feet toward the ocean

earlier this year. they replenished those beaches. because of that, the sand, the dunes, pretty much held here and they have dodged that bullet. which was very good news for the people here in delaware because this board walk in rehoboth beach, very heavily dependent on this for their tourism industry. 30,000 to 40,000 people come here every summer. this board walk has held. throughout the state, about 45,000 plus customers without power. 30 or 40 roads impassable. we'll get a read on flooding a little bit later, soledad. >> appreciate the update. when we come back, we'll continue to update you on some of the impact, the devastating impact in some circumstances from this superstorm sandy. we're coming to you from lower manhattan. we'll tell you what's happening where we are as well, as the rain picks up for us. we'll be back in a little bit. stay with us. 

morning. welcome, everybody. you're watching a special edition of "early start." i'm soledad o'brien. we are bringing you special rolling coverage of the aftermath of superstorm sandy. as it continues its way out of new york into pennsylvania today and then back into the western part of new york and then up to canada. we're monitoring it all very closely for you. lots to talk about. they used the word epic when they talk about superstorm sandy. i think that's a fair description as it has disrupted millions of lives all along the east coast from fires to floods, burning now a fire in rockaway queens. 50 homes we know have beened to the ground. there are another two dozen homes in the process of burning

right now. big problem for the firefighters, there's no water pressure. they cannot fight this fire effectively. the fire they believe started when the high winds knocked down power lines an those power lines then caught fire an set fire to all these homes. you can see some of the pictures there. we have a crew on the way. we'll be able to update you live as soon as they're able to get there and give us more information. transformer explosions has left hundreds of thousands of people in lower manhattan in the dark. backup generator failed at nyu langone medical center. that's forced the evacuation of 200 patients. some were intensive care and had to be moved to other hospitals. the city's transportation stins to be shut down because of massive flooding. we're told it could be days, four days maybe, before they're able to re-open the city's subway. they're calling it a post

tropical cyclone. the national weather service is warning that damaging wind gusts of 70 to 90 miles an hour still possible for long island, southern connecticut as well, through 10:00 this evening. terrible news to report, sandy's killed 13 people here in the united states, 5 of those fatalities are in, no. another was reported in connecticut. three more in new jersey, including a couple in morris county who were crushed in their car when a tree fell on them. there's been one fatality reporteded in west virginia, two in pennsylvania and a crew member on board the "hms bounty." remember we told you that story yesterday morning, the "hms bounty" which took on water and the 17 people on board had to be put on life boats. we know now one crew member is known to be dead at this time. so let me tell you where i am. we talked about that transformer exploding. many people described it as a series of blue and green lights flashing, scared some people.

it's not very far from where i am, probably 15 or so block. we know now that that transformer is not going to come up anytime soon. you can see around me, except for the lights that we've brought in, this area has been plunged into darkness. we're told it could be a week, maybe more before they are able to restore power here. they shut down power to much of lower manhattan in order to keep the waters that were flooding and damaging these transformers from doing massive damage. it's easier to fix as we reported yesterday when they shut it down ahead of time. transformers started to explode. they've shut the whole thing down. could be a week before they're able to bring powerback to this area. that's affecting hundreds of thousands of people. where that flashing light is back there, that's fdr drive. and you've seen pictures of the flooding along that drive, massive flooding. that's reseeing and in fact if you look down, probably about halfway down there, the water is back there.

it was where i'm standing. they've made progress on that front. this is the evacuation zone "a" which means this is the area they knew would flood. it's the low-lying area, lots of landfill in this part of lower manhattan. they are hoping that once that water goes out they'll be able to do more repairs and hopefully bring people back into those homes as soon as possible. i want to get to deb feyerick. she's been reporting from long island which was hit in a major way by this storm. deb, tell me about where you are and what you're seeing this morning. >> reporter: i can't see you. soledad, let me tell you what we're seeing here. this is the street where our colleague last night was standing an it was really almost waist high. now the water has receded. but the area where we're standing you have inlets basically. we expect that at high tide this will all come in. what we can tell you, the smell of gasoline and a fire is very strong right now in this particular area. a number of house fires happened

overnight and firefighters working to put those out. it's an incredible almost dichotomy. you have fires, you have floods, all of it happening at the same time with resources stretched to the very max. the evacuation centers were up and running. there were folks from the national grid, the power center who were there with us. a number of families who left as soon as the power went out in their homes. it was fascinating. almost reminded me of being at a disney hotel because you have disparate families and older folks who were there. a number of senior centers were evacuated as well. parts of the area are completely block off. the roads are flooded. you make a turn down and you don't know how deep the water will be, whether there will be electrical cords in the water. that's what officials are looking at right now, just how bad this can be, then they can get a look down on land. two police officers we spoke to

earlier, usually they're up flying but the weather was so bad, they said they were stationed to guard a couple of roads, lindenhurst long island, wherer with standing right now, national guard troops called out by governor cuomo and bayview, long island, they were evacation waited as well. they were cut off. everybody waiting to see how bad it is when the light comes up, soledad. >> i know. can't wait for the sun to come up here as well, deb, so we can get a sense of how bad this is from all that damage overnight. deb feyerick for us in lindenhurst, long island. massive fire in queens, too homes burned to the ground, two dozen others in flames right now. the firefighters struggling to put out those fires. that's because the lack of water

pressure. we have the crews on the way to bring you live pictures when we get a chance. we've got to get now to the other side of manhattan from where i am on the other side, west side of lower manhattan is where john berman is this morning with a look at some of the flooding that's happening there. john, it was major, major flooding, the predictions actually were off from the terrible amount they predicted was lower than what they actually got. >> it was simply unprecedented. unprecedented storm surge here. place where i'm standing last night at about 9:00, this was effectively part of new york harbor. the storm surge was nearly 14 feet high. that is 4 feet higher than the record back in 1960. 14 feet. way out in new york harbor by the way they measured waves that were 32 feet high, 6 feet higher than the record. the water swept in right here, went up to about -- past my waist last night when it was at its worst. you can see what it did to the plants. it swept in and effect efly

swamped this entire area. we've walked all the way through. there's something of a little bit of a lake by a field down that way. it created something of a huge, huge mess. other side of the evacuation zone from where you are, soledad, 370,000 people were told they should get out of these areas. i don't know how many did. you get the sense there are a lot of people that did try to ride out this storm. when i headed down here just a few hours ago, the city was pitch black. the whole lower part of manhattan lost power or had their power shut down, some 250,000 people in manhattan alone are without power right now. as you said, the subway is not running. seven of the subway tunnel tubes have been flooded. they don't know how long it will take to pump those out, anywhere between 14 hours and 4 days. the subway system says the damage there has been unprecedented. we're using that word a lot but, again, the storm surge here was simply incredible.

>> yes, it's crazy to watch these pictures this morning and as soon as the light comes up, i think we'll get a better sense of how bad and widespread that damage is. john berman for us on the other side of lower manhattan from where i'm standing this morning. thank you, john. we want to get to mike galanos, he's in atlantic city with a look at some of the devastating effects of the superstorm there. what are you seeing this morning, mike? >> reporter: it surprises me. again, i go to bed last night and i was standing in waist deep water at some points. in front of me is the atlantic city convention center, behind me in the distance was bally's. i was in the middle of a street that played out like a raging river. the water has receded but i have rain and wind. we can't wait for day break to assess the damage even more so. yesterday, many parts of atlantic city under water, two,

three pete of water. the mayor at one point went to check on how a shelter was doing and had a difficult time getting back. he saw downed power lines. at that point he told everybody, if you have not gotten to a shelter, just hunker down. behind me is a sheridan. these were families that tried to ride out the storm but couldn't. for them, luckily they were able to make it to this hotel and were able to stay. i saw them hanging out in lobbies, commiserating as we were all trying to ride out the storm. >> mike galanos, thank you. i keep mangling your name this morning, mike. i got it now. appreciate the update. let's get right to zoraida sambolin. she's updating us on other effects of this storm. >> it looks and sounds like fireworks but those sparks are flying from a pole carrying

power lines. this is a story in queens as a result of superstorm sandy. con ed reports that the storm has left more than 600,000 customers without power and that is the most in their entire history. and soledad was telling you about this earlier, over 200 patients at the nyu langone medical center in manhattan had to be evacuated. fierce flooding and a failed backup generator forcing ambulances to transport everyone to nearby facilities. i was reading that they had absolutely no communication. it was the hospitals receiving patients that notified their families that their loved ones were being moved. sandy is wreaking havoc on air travel as well. all three new york airports remain closed. that's having a ripple effect on both domestic and international travel. some 13,000 flights have been canceled. the closures costing airlines a combined $10 million a day. meantime, amtrak is extending

cancellations on its northeast corridor service and that is through today we understand, soledad. >> all right, zoraida sambolin with an update. thank you, appreciate that. still ahead this morning, we'll talk about the financial impact for the first time in more than 100 years, the stock exchange is closed for the second day in a row. christine romans will join us to talk about that financial impact from this storm. that's straight ahead. back in just a moment. [ male announcer ] one in four americans can't sleep.

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welcome back to special coverage of superstorm sandy and its massive impact on the east coast. a transformer explosion at a con edison power plan in the lower manhattan leaving large sections of lower manhattan without power this morning. this happened just before 8:30

last night in the styvestown section of the city. the city that never sleeps started to go dark. con ed reporting no electricity below 29th street in manhattan. floodwaters and power stations forcing con ed officials to turn off the lights. right now about 6.5 million people in 13 states and washington, d.c. are without power, thanks to sandy. hurricane force winds reaching nearly 200 miles out from the eye of the storm. people have been left in the dark from north carolina all the way up to maine, about 4.5 million of those out ans in the t tri-state area. for the first time in over a century, the new york stock exchange will be closed for a second day due to weather today. the last time that happened because of weather was the blizzard of 1888.

it is so rare to have stocks closed. the nasdaq and also bond markets are closed today. stock futures, though, are being traded electronically through 9:15 a.m. eastern. futures for the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 are all down. the stock markets will not open today. sandy could also delay the release of the critical october jobs report. it's scheduled to come out on friday. it could get pushed back because some government offices were closed during the storm. the only other time in history the jobs report was delay was in 1996 because of the federal government shutdown. a reminder, this is the last jobs report before election day and the government tells us they're working real hard to make sure that jobs report is ready as scheduled. soledad? >> all right, christine, thank you for that update. still ahead this morning, i want to show you a picture of a crane we were watching closely yesterday. this morning, that crane has toppled quite a bit.

take a look. the top of the crane has tipped from being tilted toward the building to tipped away from the building. it has started to collapse. they can't secure it any more because of the high winds. this is at a luxury high-rise called 157. we're back in just a moment. i'm only in my 60's... i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out

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morning. welcome back, everybody. you're watching a special edition of "early start" as we update you on superstorm sandy. want to get right to sandra endo. she's been standing by for us in ocean city, maryland, since sunday. let's take a look at how things are there this morning. sandra, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, soledad. this is the first time in two days we haven't been pelted with rain. there is no rain. actually this morning. and we are still feeling some wind but not as severe as in the days past. take a look at the surf. while the waves may look big it's nothing like the fierce waves we've seen that have breached the sand dunes in the last day or so, but clearly now the focus is on damage and assessing what hurricane sandy did to ocean city. we know there's a lot of beach erosion. take a look here, soledad. you can see also how strong the winds were. that's part of a roof that was

blown off during the storm and you can see some debris scattered around the street area. of course when the sun comes up we'll be able to better assess the flooding in certain parts of the area. we know that 5,600 people are without power. utility companies have been doing around trying to restore power. we know that two major arteries were blocked off, getting into ocean city. one of those arteries has been re-opened. but in terms of maryland, we know that right now 350,000 people are still without power and, of course, it's going to be a few days and take a lot of work for everyone to get power restored. but clearly now the focus is on assessing the damage and trying to recover from this storm. soledad? >> sandra endo for us this morning, thank you for the update. let's get right to zoraida sambolin with an update on other stories around this storm. good morning. the body of a missing crew

member from "hms bounty" has been recovered, this is off the north carolina coast. one other crew member remains missing at this hour. the coast guard says 14 others were rescued from their life rafts by two jay hawk helicopters after that ship took on water and eventually sank as you're seeing there. and the impact of superstorm sandy being felt on the campaign trail as well. both president obama and mitt romney cancelling campaign events yesterday and today. at a rally in florida yesterday, paul ryan urged supporters to lend a hand to all the storm victims. >> let's send our prayers and our thoughts to the people in the northeast. floridians, you are no stranger to big storms. you know better than anyone on the need for communities to come together and for neighbors to help one another. >> first lady michelle obama at a campaign event in iowa city says the president is putting his political schedule on hold

because sandy is his priority. and west virginiaens are expected to get hammered by heavy and wet snow. sandy's not sparing anyone. as much as three feet of it is expected in higher elevations and a blizzard warning is in effect for ten counties there. the snow threatens to bring down power lines and people are being advised as they are here to stay indoors, soledad. >> what a mess. what a mess. zoraida, thank you for the update. we take a short break. within we come back on the other side, we tell you what's happening with that massive house fire -- i should say fire of two dozen homes in breezy point in queens. we know it's related to hurricane sandy. downed power lines started this fire. huge problem for firefighters, no water pressure. they can't fight this fire ekively. we have an update and new pictures to show you when we come back in just a moment.

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morning. welcome, everybody, i'm soledad o'brien and you are watching a special edition of "early start." we're following the trail of superstorm sandy. and the storm itself has reeked havoc here in new york city. lots to tell you about this morning, dozens of homes have been destroyed by a massive fire in queens. we're watching those pictures. lower manhattan has been flooded by historic storm surge. a power transformer explode, plunging neighborhoods into darkness in lower manhattan and forced the evacuation as well o